The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) has awarded a $1.9 million contract to Slingshot Aerospace to enhance its GPS jamming and spoofing detection capabilities. This contract, Positioning, Navigation and Timing – Secure Electronic Navigation Threat Intelligence and Location (PNT-SENTINEL), aims to improve the company’s existing technology by incorporating advanced artificial intelligence and predictive analytics.
The PNT-SENTINEL program builds upon Slingshot’s previous work under the Data Exploitation and Enhanced Processing (DEEP) contract, awarded in October 2021. The technology developed through DEEP currently assists the U.S. Space Force in detecting GPS jamming and ground-based interference sources related to ongoing conflicts, potential future conflict zones and counterterrorism efforts.
GPS spoofing and jamming pose significant threats to both military operations and civilian infrastructure. Such interference can impact a wide range of operations, including satellite systems, ground and air operations and critical services such as commercial airline operations and vehicle navigation. The global reliance on GNSS has increased the importance of protecting these signals from interference.
Slingshot’s technology utilizes a mesh network of thousands of satellites to create a near-real-time picture of GPS jamming occurrences worldwide. This space-based approach offers a more comprehensive view of global jamming conditions compared to traditional ground-based detection systems.
As part of the contract, Slingshot will integrate its AI model, Agatha, into the PNT-SENTINEL system. This integration aims to enhance the technology’s ability to detect and differentiate between unintentional interference and deliberate jamming or spoofing attempts. The improved system will also implement pattern recognition algorithms to identify active jamming events and predict how situations may evolve.
The contract also includes provisions for expanding the system’s capabilities to monitor interference across multiple GNSS sources, not just GPS. This multi-GNSS processing will allow for a more complete, real-time view of jamming activities by incorporating data from allied nations’ spacecraft.
The PNT-SENTINEL system is designed to be interoperable with existing military systems, enabling near-real-time information dissemination to support rapid decision-making in national security operations. These enhancements aim to provide warfighters with a strategic advantage in GPS-contested environments.
Mapbox and Hyundai AutoEver, a software affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, have developed an integrated AI-driven 3D navigation system with advanced driver-assistance (ADAS) capabilities. This system, powered by Mapbox 3D Live Navigation and MapGPT, operates on Hyundai Mobis’ cockpit domain controller.
The Mapbox 3D Live Navigation system offers 3D lane-level guidance, augmented reality overlays and real-time driver assistance. It integrates Mapbox’s navigation technology with Hyundai AutoEver’s software-defined vehicle platform and Hyundai Mobis’ AR-enabled cockpit domain controller. This integration provides drivers with turn-by-turn navigation enhanced by ADAS alerts, including collision warnings and lane departure notifications.
MapGPT, an AI-powered location assistant, complements the navigation system. It facilitates voice-driven interactions for dynamic routing, real-time traffic updates and hyper-local search. The system also allows voice-activated controls for in-car functions such as climate control and music. For electric vehicles, MapGPT includes features such as real-time range monitoring and charging station recommendations.
At CES 2025, Mapbox and Hyundai AutoEver will demonstrate these technologies, showcasing features such as lane-level AR navigation, voice-controlled systems and electronic vehicle-specific tools.
At sunrise on Oct. 1, 2024, SL-15 launched into a perfectly clear blue sky over the desert from Spaceport America, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The flight — conducted by UP Aerospace with support from NASA’s Flight Opportunities program — carried aloft the payloads and hopes of researchers from three countries — Italy, Germany and the United States — and ten organizations.
Spaceport America, the first commercial spaceport in the world, is an FAA-licensed launch complex. Situated on 18,000 acres adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, it has a rocket-friendly environment of 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace, low population density, a 12,000 ft by 200 ft runway, vertical launch complexes and about 340 days of sunshine and low humidity.
UP Aerospace, a Denver-based company created in 1998, conducted its first suborbital flight from Spaceport America in 2006, which was also the inaugural flight from the spaceport. UP Aerospace maintains a launch complex, a payload processing center and a space propulsion center at the spaceport. Its launch operations and SpaceLoft suborbital launch vehicle were designed and built as a reliable, low-cost Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) system.
NASA’s Flight Opportunities program rapidly demonstrates technologies developed by industry, academia, as well as NASA and other government scientists through testing with various commercial flight providers. The program matures capabilities needed for NASA missions and commercial applications while strategically investing in the growth of the U.S. commercial space industry. Available flight platforms include suborbital rockets, rocket-powered landers, aircraft flying parabolic profiles to achieve reduced gravity, high-altitude balloons, and hosted orbital vehicles.
Interoperability test
One of the payloads carried to suborbital heights by the SL-15 rocket was a suite of multi-GNSS receivers from NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, the European Space Agency (ESA) / European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana or ASI), and their contractors Fraunhofer (a German, publicly owned research and development organization) and Qascom (a private Italian engineering company offering security solutions in satellite navigation and space cybersecurity). A key goal of the flight test was to determine the scope of the interoperability of these receivers. The full results of the test will be presented at the intercessional meeting of the International Committee on GNSS (ICG), a part of the United Nations Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in Vienna in June 2025.
One of the other payloads on the flight was an experiment by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology — aka New Mexico Tech — on spacecraft health monitoring and real-time systems built by the company Immortal Data, which also tested out and collected environmental data on some of its own equipment as it relates to product development. Another payload was an advanced prototype Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) transmitter that could potentially be used for independent, low-cost tracking of space launch vehicles.
Lisa Valencia, an electrical engineer for Overlook Systems Technologies, Inc. and NASA’s SCaN Program at NASA Headquarters, was the program manager for the SCaN payload mission. In November 2019, SL-14 tested NASA’s Autonomous Flight Termination Unit as well as Qascom’s GNSS signal recorder. Oscar Pozzobon, co-founder, president, and CEO of Qascom, was able to post-process the data collected by the recorder. SL-15 was originally planned to launch in November 2022; however, it was scrubbed due to interference between the launch vehicle’s S-band transmitter and the L-band GNSS receiver on board. In May 2023, the original SL-15 booster was used for SL-17, a mission carrying student payloads, which experienced an anomaly, ending the flight test three seconds after launch. Therefore, Valencia, her team, and the other teams involved were elated when the October 2024 launch was successful.
Building on the success of the previous SL-14 launch, the SL-15 mission to fly two GPS-Galileo receivers on a sounding rocket is the result of an agreement between NASA, ASI and ESA. The primary objective was to assess GPS-Galileo performance in a highly dynamic environment. The secondary objective was to have the GNSS receivers integrated with the avionics on board the vehicle, with the aim to test the real time use of PVT available during the flight, in contrast to post processing on SL-14. This allowed the evaluation for operational use of multi-constellation / multi-frequencies GNSS for Autonomous Flight Termination Systems (AFTS). AFTS is an independent launch vehicle subsystem designed for range safety operations. From 2014 to 2019, Valencia was the project manager for AFTS in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The interoperability experiment on the SL-15 mission included two Autonomous Flight Termination Units (AFTU) and two GPS-Galileo receivers utilizing the L1/E1/L5/E5a signals: a GNSS Dual Frequency / Dual Constellation QN400-SPACE receiver for GPS-GALILEO Receiver for Human Exploration & Operations (GARHEO) program of ASI and Qascom, and a GNSS Receiver with Open Software Interface (GOOSE) receiver from ESA/ESOC and Fraunhofer; as well as a JAVAD GPS L1 receiver. During the flight, a 12-second launch and boost phase was followed by ascent coasting until the rocket reached apogee at an altitude of 115 km, followed by descent, re-entry, and landing, for a total flight duration of 13 minutes. The rocket reached a maximum speed of 1400 m/s, a maximum acceleration of 13.5 G, and a maximum spin rate of 7 Hz.
The NASA sponsor for the GNSS Payload mission is James J. Miller, Executive Director of the National Space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board with the SCaN Program. The team members are:
NASA: James J. Miller, Lisa Valencia, Hubert Chang, Paul De León, Anh N. Nguyen
ASI:Giancarlo Varacalli, Claudia Facchinetti, Mario Musmeci
During this highly dynamic flight, all GNSS receivers successfully tracked, with high accuracy, based on position, velocity and time (PVT) solutions, meeting the interoperability payload objectives of dual constellation (GPS and Galileo) and dual frequency (L1/E1 and L5/E5a) compatibility.
One plot of the rocket’s altitude changes over time produced from the data collected is striking: a blue line representing the data from the GARHEO and a red one representing data from a monitoring radar on the ground overlap perfectly, resulting in a single purple line on the graph.
During a launch, space vehicles rely on GNSS signals for tracking, monitoring, and safety. Their ability to receive signals from multiple GNSS constellations would offer launch vehicles more precise and reliable real-time PVT information. The SL-15 GNSS experiment demonstrated the benefits of interoperability between Galileo and GPS in highly dynamic environments.
The next step will be a detailed analysis of the data collected during the flight. ESA/ESOC’s next steps will be to process the data from the GOOSE receiver taken on-board and to apply different concepts and algorithms in order to achieve the highest possible accuracy for the SL-15 flight trajectory. Among them will also be a Precise Point Positioning (PPP) GNSS technique that utilizes the GOOSE receiver data in combination with precise orbits and clocks for Galileo and GPS, which will be calculated by ESOC’s Precise Navigation System (EPNS) software. Results are expected in early 2025. ASI/Qascom’s next steps include utilizing the data collected by the SL15 experiment to support the development and validation of the new generation of high dynamics GNSS receivers providing enhanced robustness against GNSS threats. This is the main objective of Qascom’s receiver. At least one launch vehicle is planning to incorporate a multi-GNSS (GPS + Galileo) receiver into their AFTS.
Quotes
“The success of SL-15 is the result of a multi-year collaborative effort with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop multi-GNSS capabilities to improve resilience for space users. The multi-national SL-15 team worked extremely well together to overcome many challenges, leading to a successful mission. The successful launch of SL-15 was particularly rewarding to our international team in light of the numerous delays we had due to export control restrictions, high winds at the launch site, and key personnel catching COVID-19 during pre-launch checkout. These delays, however, gave us time to resolve payload interference issues identified during one of the launch preparations as well as have our payload reassigned from a rocket with a faulty engine that ended up failing on another mission (SL-17).”
— Lisa Valencia
“The key benefit of this mission was validating our ability to track both GPS & Galileo signals under the highly dynamic conditions of a sounding rocket launch. These included an initial acceleration to 14G (or 14 times the gravitational acceleration on Earth’s surface), a 7 Hz spin rate (seven spins every second), and a maximum speed more than 1400 m/s (3,132 mph).”
— A.J. Ora, Ph.D.
“The integration of GPS+Galileo for high-dynamic space applications will most certainly continue opening up more operational scenarios as GNSS signals become more available and resilient in the sparse and challenging space domain. The use of additional GNSS signals to augment GPS is developing rapidly and is a cornerstone of strengthening international collaboration as called for in Space Policy Directive-7 (SPD-7). NASA is therefore a proud contributor in helping to develop navigation tools that will benefit all space sector users as more knowledge is gained and adopted.”
— James Miller
“UP Aerospace appreciates the opportunity to work with NASA and the vast array of customers they serve. We have partnered in many successful launch campaigns. It can be challenging to integrate so many different payloads into one vehicle, but we are excited at the success of SL-15. Launching rockets is a risky business and sometimes anomalies can occur. The key is to learn from each launch and incorporate the lessons-learned into subsequent flights, ensuring their success.”
John Deere has introduced the second generation of its autonomy kit, which integrates advanced computer vision, AI and camera technology to enhance machine navigation in various environments. This development comes in response to widespread labor shortages across multiple industries, the company said at CES 2025.
The agricultural sector faces a significant challenge, with the American Farm Bureau Federation estimating that approximately 2.4 million farm jobs must be filled annually. Similarly, the construction industry struggles with labor shortages, with 88% of contractors reporting difficulties finding skilled workers. The commercial landscaping sector is also affected, with 86% of business owners struggling to fill open positions.
“Our agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping customers all have work that must get done at certain times of the day and year, yet there is not enough available and skilled labor to do the work,” said Jahmy Hindman, chief technology officer at John Deere. “Autonomy can help address this challenge. That’s why we’re extending our technology stack to enable more machines to operate safely and autonomously in unique and complex environments. This will not only benefit our customers but all of us who rely on them to provide the food, fuel, fiber, infrastructure and landscaping care that we depend on every day.”
New autonomy kit
The new autonomy kit is being implemented across various machines, including the 9RX tractor for large-scale agriculture, the 5ML orchard tractor for air blast spraying, the 460 P-Tier autonomous articulated dump truck for quarry operations and an autonomous battery electric mower for commercial landscaping. These machines feature advanced camera systems, lidar sensors and improved depth calculation capabilities, allowing for more efficient and precise operations.
John Deere offers multiple adoption paths for users, with select machines being autonomy-ready from the factory and retrofit kits available for certain existing machines. The autonomous machines are managed through the John Deere Operations Center Mobile, a cloud-based platform that allows users to control and monitor the machines remotely, access live video and data and receive notifications about job quality or machine health issues.
NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) are collaborating on the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), which seeks to demonstrate the viability of providing positioning, navigation and timing capabilities on the moon using GPS and Galileo signals.
LuGRE’s payload consists of a weak-signal GNSS receiver, a high-gain L-band patch antenna, a low-noise amplifier and an RF filter. The receiver is designed to track GPS L1 C/A and L5 signals, as well as Galileo E1 and E5a signals. It will collect pseudorange, carrier phase and Doppler measurements, calculate onboard navigation solutions, and have the capability to record raw I/Q baseband samples for ground processing.
NASA‘s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program office funded and oversaw the experiment. It was selected as one of ten research and technology demonstrations for lunar surface delivery by Firefly Aerospace, under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
LuGRE builds upon previous missions in the Space Service Volume, including experiments by AMSAT-OSCAR 40, GOES-R series satellites and the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. It aims to be one of the first demonstrations of GNSS signal reception and navigation in the lunar environment, potentially paving the way for operational use in future lunar missions.
The target launch date for the Blue Ghost 1 mission carrying LuGRE is Jan. 15, 2025. Upon completion, all LuGRE science data will be made available to the public for the benefit of the GNSS and space communities.
HERE Technologies and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have entered a cloud infrastructure agreement aimed at advancing the development of software-defined vehicles (SDVs). This partnership combines HERE’s mapping solutions with AWS technologies to accelerate the creation of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), automated driving (AD) and new digital car experiences.
The collaboration leverages HERE’s expertise in location technology and AWS’s cloud capabilities to address the growing importance of live mapping in modern vehicles. These data-intensive operations can now be supported and scaled more efficiently using AWS, potentially reducing development times and accelerating innovation in the automotive industry.
HERE has been utilizing AWS for its core cloud infrastructure, data platform and AI/ML model deployment for nearly a decade. This expanded collaboration allows HERE to offer automakers a comprehensive set of cloud-native tools and technologies, enhancing various aspects of vehicle functionality, from improved active safety features to optimized infotainment systems.
Key developments
A key development from this partnership is SceneXtract, a solution that streamlines the process of creating simulation-ready scenes for testing ADAS and AD systems. By combining HERE HD Live Map data with AWS’s natural language processing and generative AI services, automotive developers can more efficiently prepare simulations, potentially accelerating the development and deployment of advanced driving technologies.
Beyond the automotive sector, HERE and AWS are collaborating on transportation and logistics solutions. These new offerings, built on AWS infrastructure, aim to help enterprise customers optimize fulfillment, improve supply chain visibility, and support sustainability goals.
ComNav Technology has introduced the AG501 Pro autosteer system, an advanced solution for precision agriculture. This system offers improved accuracy and efficiency for various farming operations. The AG501 Pro features a streamlined design, incorporating the A100 Pro Smart Antenna, which integrates a GNSS antenna, GNSS module, gyroscope and datalink functionalities into a single unit.
The system utilizes ComNav’s high-performance GNSS module, which supports full-constellation tracking. By employing GNSS+INS terrain compensation technology, the AG501 Pro can achieve a pass-to-pass accuracy of 2.5 cm across diverse terrains, minimizing skips and overlaps.
It also includes free signal options, such as Galileo-HAS and Beidou-B2B services, allowing 5 cm to 10 cm accuracy without the need for mobile RTK base stations or RTK service subscriptions. This is particularly beneficial in areas with poor internet connectivity.
The AG501 Pro offers a variety of guideline options, including parallel straight lines, curves, A+ Heading and automatic U-turns, catering to different farming procedures. It operates within a speed range of 0.1 to 20 km/h and is compatible with major brands and various machine types, including tractors, sprayers and combine harvesters. The system’s user-friendly software interface seeks to simplify configuration and task management. It allows for quick AB line setting and easy engagement of the autosteer function. Additionally, the AG501 Pro software supports multiple languages, making it accessible to farmers worldwide.
TomTom and Esri have partnered to integrate TomTom’s global map and traffic data into ArcGIS, Esri’s comprehensive geospatial platform.
This collaboration aims to provide businesses and governments with location-based insights for various applications, including infrastructure maintenance, traffic flow analysis and retail site optimization. Esri is a prominent provider of geographic information system (GIS) technology, offering mapping and spatial analysis applications that facilitate efficient data collection, management and analysis. Organizations across various sectors — including governments, educational institutions, non-profits and businesses —can utilize the software.
In February 2023, Esri joined the Overture Maps Foundation, a collaborative effort initiated by Amazon Web Services, Meta, Microsoft and TomTom. This foundation aims to establish a location data standard and promote a data-sharing ecosystem to enhance maps, location technology applications and location-based insights.
Containers, stillages, trailers or reusable transport packaging — non-powered assets such as these play a central role in smooth supply chains and logistics processes. For a long time, however, non-powered assets could hardly be digitized due to a lack of sufficient battery life, thus eluding efficient management.
To plan and control logistical processes and supply chains, companies usually needed a large buffer/reserve stock and sometimes a lot of telephone/administrative work to determine the exact location and condition of such assets. Thanks to power-saving Internet of Things and wireless technology paired with high-performance sensors for environmental conditions and intelligent firmware, sufficiently robust trackers are now available for efficient use in the mass market.
Figure 1: Integrated modeling tools help to model and track the flow of assets across operations and locations.
The basics: Thousands of tracker data at a glance
In order for companies to derive real benefits for their business from pure tracking, they need a management platform that can do more than display the trackers on a map. Depending on the requirements, tracking hardware can be equipped with sensors for temperature, humidity or tipping movements, for example.
A management platform must then ensure that the multitude of trackers can be efficiently commissioned and administered and that their collected data is made available for use. After all, large amounts of data are only valuable if important insights can be gained quickly and intuitively. The tracking application, therefore, needs powerful search and filter functions and visually meaningful maps, dashboards and panels.
Integration into existing systems
However, for the data collected via tracking to fully benefit the company’s supply chains and logistics processes, it needs to be integrated into the company’s existing IT systems, such as ERP systems or tools for data analysis and business intelligence.
The data exchanges between the business applications can be useful in both directions: on the one hand, precise localization and sensor data from the tracking platform enrich reliable enterprise resource planning via the ERP system; on the other hand, it can be helpful to make data from the ERP system available to the tracker management platform — for example, to evaluate the utilization of a trailer or to simply display the contents of a container via a mobile app on-site.
Technically, such data exchange can be realized through open APIs (application programming interfaces), which such a management platform should have. This enables the professional implementation of system integrations that are needed in the business IT of many companies — for example with SAP, Microsoft Azure or AWS.
Designing/modeling process flows and making route patterns transparent
In order for companies to make their own processes around tracked assets transparent, a management platform needs tools that can be used to model and track the flow of assets across the different processes and, if applicable, locations (see Figure 1). Also important for this is the ability to define specific geographic areas of interest. Such geo-zones can then be used for inventory management, flow analysis or alerts. The mapping of load carriers or other assets to companies’ logistical processes and supply chains provides an accurate overview of how individual assets move from location to location, where they stop and for how long.
Based on the collected data, route patterns and travel times can be identified, rotation statistics with average and outlier analyses can be created (see Figure 2), and finally, planning and forecasts can be adjusted based on measured historical data. For appropriate visualization and evaluation, the tracking platform should provide the appropriate tools. This way, statistics can be generated for thousands of assets and/or an entire fleet, which can serve as a basis for further process optimization.
Figure 2: With a high-performance tracker management system, route patterns and travel times can be detected, and rotation statistics can be generated so that averages and anomalies can be identified.
Airbus example
Airbus develops, manufactures and delivers aerospace products, services and solutions worldwide, with more than 50,000 dedicated returnable transport packages circulating between sites and subcontractors. Thousands of returnable transport packages have been equipped with trackers and managed via a cloud-based platform over the past years. Airbus therefore benefits today from complete transparency. Inventory runs automatically, and stocks can be easily retrieved with their locations. The rotation capability of the packages has been improved, while their storage times and the circulating stocks have been reduced. Fleet capacity can also now be optimized, spare parts costs saved and subcontractor compliance better monitored.
The advantages at a glance
Precise inventory management of all mobile assets, from containers to returnable transport packaging to construction machinery.
Reliable condition monitoring: Continuous monitoring of environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity creates transparency — e.g., for compliance agreements.
Optimal process flows: Route patterns and turnaround times become transparent and anomalies easily identifiable, so that warnings can be sent in time and processes optimized overall.
Utilization monitoring: The utilization of each load carrier and each asset in a fleet can be precisely determined and optimized.
Predictive maintenance: Thanks to continuous monitoring, the maintenance of monitored assets can be planned and carried out in advance — before a breakdown interrupts important business processes.
Protection against theft: Lost or stolen assets can be easily recovered, so that financial damage can be minimized, especially in the case of expensive specialized assets.
All construction work begins with surveying to map the site and generally ends with surveying to document what was done on it — called “as built.” Therefore, surveyors are the first to arrive at a construction site, well before the first heavy machinery, and the last ones to leave, well after the construction crews have left with their equipment. During construction, surveyors get to work any time there are changes in the plans.
Surveyors are not the only ones to use survey-grade GNSS receivers on a construction site, though. GNSS for machine control is increasingly common on excavators, graders, dozers and other heavy machinery. It enables operators to achieve accurate earthmoving and grading operations with minimal manual intervention, significantly improving efficiency and reducing rework by providing real-time positioning data based on 3D design models. Additionally, a dedicated display in the cab allows operators to see a visual representation of the machine’s position relative to the design model and to make adjustments in real-time.
This month’s cover story features case studies from four companies:
CHC Navigation (CHCNAV) on grading for an airport construction project in Shanghai, China.
ComNav Technology on a river flow monitoring system to mitigate the effects of flooding in Japan.
Nearmap on solving the stormwater challenges of a small town in Michigan.
Frontier Precision on the repair of a canal in Montana in very challenging conditions.
Construction of a building cannot begin until the ground is level and matches the design so that it can bear the weight of the planned structure. At times, part of the ground needs to be sloped to ensure proper drainage or to meet the aesthetic needs of the project. However, the ground at a construction site is often uneven and/or sloped the wrong way. Therefore, a critical phase of any AEC project is grading, which is a specialized phase of the construction process that uses machinery such as graders, bulldozers, excavators, and dump trucks to move and shape large amounts of earth.
Traditionally, grading involved the use of string lines and optical levels, which are still valuable for smaller projects. These tools provide a visual reference for achieving the desired slope and allow for manual adjustments as needed. Modern construction practices rely on laser levels — which provide accurate measurements, ensuring a consistent slope — and, increasingly, on GNSS receivers, which aid in precise grading, especially in large-scale projects.
In a recent project to build an apron — a paved area where aircraft are parked, loaded, unloaded, refueled and boarded, also known as the ramp, flight line or tarmac — as part of the expansion of Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the construction company adopted CHCNAV’s i93 GNSS receiver solution. The project, by a large state-owned construction company, began at the end of July 2024 and is expected to take two years to complete. By directly loading the designed triangulated terrain model (TTM) for surface stakeout, the project managers were able to visualize the cut-and-fill values at any location in real time. This approach doubled the stakeout efficiency and significantly improved the quality of site grading.
Project challenges and solution
The airport project covered approximately 360,000 m², demanding high-precision grading. Traditional surveying methods could only verify cut-and-fill heights at grid nodes, failing to effectively cover areas between these nodes. This limitation increased the risk of uneven construction and restricted the comprehensiveness of elevation data. Additionally, the traditional stakeout process was cumbersome and inefficient, requiring point selection before stakeout. To overcome these challenges, the construction team needed a surveying solution that could significantly enhance stakeout efficiency while improving grading precision and construction outcomes.
The construction team used the CHCNAV i93 GNSS receiver and LandStar field survey APP. By using the surface stakeout function for site grading, it was able to load the TTM generated from design data directly into the LandStar software, simplifying the grading process. The software enabled surveyors to obtain cut-and-fill values at any location in real time, thereby eliminating reliance on grid nodes and enabling dynamic verification across the entire site for higher grading precision. Lastly, the solution doubled the stakeout efficiency by reducing the steps of selecting feature points before stakeout.
Using CHCNAV’s Satellite Wide Area System (SWAS) corrections network, a global system that offers users fast and precise centimeter-level positioning services, the surveyor was able to achieve an elevation accuracy of -3 cm ~ +2 cm. SWAS covers most of the inhabited areas in China and is expanding its network globally. CHCNav’s satellite Precise Point Positioning service is being developed and tested; it will become part of the SWAS service in the future. The surveyor guides the site grading by comparing the difference between the elevation in the design plans and the measured elevation. Therefore, when the site grading is complete, it should match the design plans.
Conclusions
“The project involves large areas of earth excavation and levelling,” said Yang, the chief of the survey team. “In the past, we had to stake out all the points of the grid after getting the design drawings, and then calculate the elevation difference of each point. If there were some special points, we also had to calculate their positions in the grid. Now, in LandStar 8, we can directly convert the grid drawing into a TTM file and stakeout, which makes it easy for us to set the elevation difference at any point without the limitation of the grid. This increased efficiency accelerated the progress of the project and reduced our workload.”
The adoption of CHCNAV’s surveying and construction solution significantly accelerated the project’s site grading work. This task, which traditionally would have taken about one month to complete, was fully accomplished in just half a month. During the project acceptance phase, the results met all design requirements and passed inspection smoothly. The construction unit reported that the CHCNAV i93 GNSS receiver and LandStar field survey APP greatly enhanced the efficiency and accuracy of the site grading portion of the construction project.
It is essential to take effective measures to mitigate the effects of natural disasters — such as earthquakes or hurricanes — and to prevent them when possible, such as sometimes with floods. This involves multiple aspects, including the development and rehearsal of emergency plans, the construction and reinforcement of infrastructure, and the monitoring of environmental changes. By identifying potential disaster risks and taking preventive actions, the damage caused by these disasters can be significantly reduced and the resilience of communities and cities can be enhanced, thus better preparing for future catastrophes.
How can these disaster mitigation and prevention measures be specifically implemented? First, by creating detailed emergency plans and conducting regular drills, which ensures a quick and effective response during critical situations. Second, by reinforcing critical infrastructure, such as protective embankments and resilient systems, which strengthens the overall preparedness of both urban and rural areas. Moreover, monitoring environmental changes plays a pivotal role in prevention efforts. Real-time observation systems, including advanced sensors and data integration platforms, enable the early detection of potential risks. This facilitates timely preventive actions, minimizing losses with optimal efficiency and resource utilization.
Mars Pro Laser RTK was used to precisely measure the positions of monitoring cameras in the Abukuma River basin.(Photo: Geosurf Corporation)
Monitoring systems
A key aspect of flood defense and disaster prevention is the establishment of monitoring systems and the enhancement of safety measures. In the Abukuma River basin, which flows through Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures in Japan, a flood monitoring system has been built that combines data from water level meters with real-time information on changes in water levels due to natural events such as typhoons. This provides residents with immediate visual updates to help them respond effectively.
ComNav Technology’s Mars Pro Laser RTK has played an important role in this flood prevention and disaster monitoring project. By using the device, which integrates advanced GNSS, IMU, and laser technologies, a team from Geosurf Corporation was able to accurately determine the locations for installing surveillance cameras, ensuring real-time monitoring of water flow conditions, and providing early warnings for natural disasters such as floods. The locations of these cameras typically include areas with a high risk of riverbank collapse, water level observation stations, and other critical spots that require close monitoring.
In the past, this task would have required using a total station. However, using Mars Pro’s very precise green laser, the crews were able to measure the locations of offset points that did not have a clear view of the sky, which is required to receive GNSS signals.
Centimeter-level accuracy
The green laser, which is visible in daylight, enabled the crews to achieve centimeter-level accuracy at any point within a range of 10 meters. They were also able to use its 120-degree tilt compensation feature to drive the stakes efficiently closer to the target point without worrying about leveling. During the RTK positioning process, the team used reliable correction information sources and precise post-processing analysis methods, ensuring that the measurement point consistency was maintained within 2 cm to 3 cm, thus ensuring high accuracy and consistency of the measurement results.
Positioning surveillance cameras in the Abukuma River basin required measuring not only their placements but also the reference points within their coverage areas. Beyond its convenience and reliability, the Mars Pro Laser RTK and its paired software, Survey Master, simplified the survey workflow by using wizard functions. Specifically, the procedure is to follow the instructions of the surveillance camera monitor to move onto the centerline and use the program’s Angle Offset Calculator to calculate the coordinates of a reference point at ±90 degrees to the line segment. Survey Master’s simple survey calculation tool eliminates the need to launch a CAD program in the field, making the staking more efficient.
For the correction information in RTK positioning, Geosurf Corporation used ichimil, a high-precision positioning service provided by Softbank. Geosurf also acquired raw data for post-processing at several locations at the same time and analyzed the measurement points using coordinate results from Japan’s Geospatial Information Authority.
The surveyor used Mars Pro Laser RTK and Survey Master software to measure the reference points within coverage areas of surveillance cameras. (Photo: Geosurf Corporation)
Conclusions
The monitoring system combines water level data collected from devices such as water level meters with changes in water levels caused by natural events such as typhoons, providing real-time visual information to residents. This allows them to stay informed about current water levels, identify potential flood risks early, and take appropriate preventive measures, effectively reducing disaster risks and safeguarding lives and property. More than 100 surveillance cameras have been installed so far in the Abukuma River and its associated watershed.
Through this project, Mars Pro Laser RTK not only enhanced emergency response capabilities but also showcased the versatility of laser RTK technology in disaster prevention and mitigation applications. Climate change is increasing the damage caused by typhoons and torrential rains worldwide. As a result, the demand for such monitoring systems is expected to grow. ComNav Technology plans to further improve user experience by integrating laser technology with additional sensors and developing more innovative tools to address future disaster prevention needs.
While surveyors are typically the first to begin working on a construction site, but they do not start completely from scratch. As a basemap for their measurements, they often use satellite and aerial imagery, the latter collected by planes and UAVs — the same imagery used in geographic information systems (GIS) by governments at every level and private companies to plan, build, and manage buildings and infrastructure. These data include high-resolution orthimages, which are taken pointing straight down at the ground and adjusted to have a constant scale of distance across them; oblique images, which can offer an alternative view of the landscape and structures where height is important; 3D datasets, including digital elevation models and models of buildings, collected using lidar; and AI-derived spatial information.
Additionally, historical imagery datasets document the evolution of land use over time and make it possible to compare conditions before and after natural disasters, such as floods and earthquakes, to expedite emergency response and reconstruction planning.
An aerial image of southfield, Michigan, from Nearmap’s natural pervious surface AI data layer. (Photo: Nearmap)
Stormwater utilities project
With a diverse population, more than 10,000 businesses, and a commitment to urban development, the City of Southfield, Michigan is known for its robust economy, thriving commercial centers, modern urban living and innovation. When it needed help to effectively manage its stormwater utilities, the city hired OHM Advisors. Founded in 1962 and with a multidisciplinary team of more than 700 experts, the firm provides consulting in the areas of architecture, engineering, planning, urban design, landscape architecture, surveying, and construction engineering. In turn, for this project, OHM Advisors used location intelligence from Nearmap, an aerial imagery company founded in 2007 that captures urban areas across the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Initially, the city planned to have access to the Nearmap imagery for only a year, for use in its stormwater utilities project. However, once it realized how useful it would be across city departments and projects, it decided to continue buying it for the long term.
Aerial imagery
The City of Southfield is currently in the planning stages of considering a new initiative to assess stormwater fees based on the number of impervious surfaces — such as asphalt and concrete — which do not allow water to penetrate the ground, thereby contributing to increased runoff and straining municipal systems. However, the city is challenged by its limited budget for maintaining, let alone upgrading, its stormwater infrastructure. Additionally, the aerial imagery it had was old and one-time flyovers of the small city to update the imagery would have been prohibitively expensive, costing up $100,000.
By purchasing high-resolution aerial imagery (captured up to three times a year), geospatial data, and AI feature layers from Nearmap, as recommended by OHM, the city was able to efficiently map impervious surfaces and readily view, identify, and verify stormwater utilities at scale. This enabled the city to develop a highly accurate and equitable system for assessing fees based on near-real-time data. It also improved the precision and efficiency of its urban planning; enabled city planners to complete tasks remotely, spending less time in the field; and updated the imagery in its GIS.
Business impact
Using current aerial imagery, geospatial data, and AI data, Nearmap and OHM identified every impervious surface in the city, enabling Southfield to:
Accurately assess stormwater fees. Analysis of Nearmap imagery and AI data allowed OHM to tie impervious surface area to stormwater fees and establish a precise, data-backed fee structure that bolsters the city’s infrastructure funding.
Reduce costs. Nearmap offered a cost-effective alternative to traditional data collection, drastically reducing the city’s expenditure without sacrificing data quality.
Enhance urban planning. Access to Nearmap facilitated remote decision-making, allowing Southfield to optimize its urban planning.
Maintain consistent data. OHM and Nearmap led to the resolution of Southfield’s data discrepancies, ensuring reliable insights for future planning.
Conclusions
“Using the high-quality Nearmap AI data allowed the OHM Advisors’ GIS team to efficiently and effectively map out the impervious surfaces for the city,” said Mike Cousins, GISP, practice leader for GIS at OHM Advisors. “Having high-resolution and very recent imagery to pair with the impervious surface data helped with the analysis portion of the project at hand.” The collaboration between OHM Advisors and Nearmap marked a significant change in Southfield’s approach to stormwater management, illustrating the potential of advanced technology to improve urban governance.
The St. Mary Canal and siphon were completed in 1915 as part of the Milk River Project in North-Central Montana. The canal has delivered water to 110,000 acres of agricultural land in eastern Montana for 109 years. In June 2024, the siphon had a catastrophic blowout when both 90-inch siphon pipes failed, releasing 600 ft³ of water per second for more than 24 hours.
The stakeholders involved quickly went to work on a solution to replace the two siphon pipes. By mid-July, NW Construction, Inc. was brought on site to begin demoing and replacing the siphon. The company uses Frontier Precision as its supplier for all its surveying equipment. Utilizing a mix of GPS machine control, geospatial survey equipment, aerial drone surveys and CAD software, NW Construction will work through the blistering Northern Montana winter to restore the siphon in time for the 2025 irrigation season.
The harsh environment and speed of the project pose tough conditions for surveying. Winds regularly reach 60 mph with gusts up to 80 mph and temperatures go well below freezing for most of the winter. The surveyors on this project will have to overcome the challenges that come with this weather and the remoteness of the project.
The project has about six excavators, including two with tilt rotators, and four dozers, all equipped with GNSS machine control. “Everything we do is completely modeled for those guys through civil 3D and Trimble Business Center,” said Kenny Neskorik, project engineer for Northwest Construction. The GNSS receivers on the earth movers are running RTK as rovers and there is a single base receiver. “When we do any sort of concrete work for this project, we will also set up a robotic total station,” he said.
Additionally, the project uses a DJI Mavic UAV to collect aerial photogrammetry of such things as finished excavation and original ground stockpiles.
Requirements
The requirements for this project are atypical, Neskorik explained, due to its emergency nature. “The design and the construction are going on at the same time through two different entities,” he said. “My company is not the engineering firm stamping the plans. We’re the ones doing the work. I
could almost describe it as a design build, in which the contractor and the engineer meet in the middle to get the best product in the fastest way.”
The project’s biggest requirement is to get water back to the eastern part of the state by summer, when it will be needed to irrigate crops. “To do that,” Neskorik said, “we had to set control.” Because the project is only a few miles from the Canadian border, however, the power of radio broadcasts is restricted to only 2 Watts instead of the usual 35 Watts on RTK radios. “That really hurts your range to talk to your base,” he said. This required setting up several relay repeaters, especially since there’s almost no cell phone service in Montana
Challenges
An additional challenge is the solar cycle, which is nearing its peak. “We have noticed lots of Northern Lights, lots of auroras,” said Neskorik, “but we haven’t seen too many disruptions yet.”
Finally, the biggest challenge is the weather. “We’ve already had probably cumulatively two feet of snowfall,” said Neskorik. “Thankfully, some of that has already melted, but this area is one of the colder parts in the United States.” Browning, he pointed out, is just 30 minutes south of us, holds the world record for fastest temperature change in 24 hours — from 56 degrees Fahrenheit to negative 46 degrees. It’s not uncommon to see negative 50 degrees. “At that temperature, your batteries die really fast, you cannot use touch screens, and you have to drill to set stakes in the frozen ground is frozen. We’ve already experienced winds at nearly 80 miles an hour and that is pretty much how it goes for the entire winter. So, as you can imagine, it’s not an easy task flying a drone around here.”
Accuracy
“Our company standard for any excavator or dozer is an accuracy of one tenth of a foot,” said Neskorik. “We want our GPS rovers to have a vertical tolerance below 5/100s of a foot. Realistically, you’re probably getting a 1/10 of a foot. You cannot have any major fluctuations in the dirt because the pipe sits directly on it.” This all must happen in real time because there is no post-processing. “Everything is modeled and the machines are running on a model. We’re checking their grades as they’re doing the work.”
Honeywell and NXP Semiconductors have expanded their partnership to advance aviation technology and autonomous flight capabilities. This collaboration merges Honeywell’s aerospace expertise and Anthem avionics system with NXP’s high-performance computing architecture to develop AI-driven aerospace technologies.
The partnership aims to enhance operational efficiency in flight planning and management while facilitating smoother transitions to new chipsets and technologies. The companies will focus on developing next-generation cockpit displays with improved visual clarity and system efficiency. They are also working on simplifying migrations to newer avionics technologies and extending the lifecycles of critical aviation systems, according to Honeywell and NXP.
NXP’s domain-based architecture, which includes high-compute capabilities, integrated cybersecurity and functional safety, will be adapted for aviation applications on Honeywell Anthem, the industry’s first cloud-connected cockpit system. This builds upon the companies’ collaboration in building management, fire safety and security products.
For aerospace applications, Honeywell will utilize various NXP processors, including the i.MX 8 applications processors and S32N super-integration processors. These processors will enable Honeywell Anthem to deliver faster data processing for real-time AI-driven insights, potentially enhancing safety and optimizing performance both in flight and on the ground.
Vertical Aerospace, a leader in electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft development, is set to be an early adopter of this collaborative technology, incorporating it into its piloted VX4 prototype aircraft.
Bad Elf and GEODNET have introduced a five-year RTK service for Bad Elf GPS receivers, designed to provide high-accuracy GPS positioning for professionals in surveying, agriculture, construction and geospatial data collection. The service offers real-time centimeter-level accuracy, designed to improve the precision of GPS data for users.
Benefits of the RTK service for Bad Elf GPS receivers:
Enhanced accuracy: Achieve centimeter-level accuracy in real-time to improve the precision of GPS data.
Seamless integration: The RTK service is designed to work with all Bad Elf GPS receivers, with one-click activation after setup.
Reliability: GEODNET’s robust network offers continuous and reliable service, even in challenging environments.
The RTK service is priced at $999 for five years, offering a long-term, cost-effective solution for professionals. It is compatible with all Bad Elf GPS receivers, including the Flex and Flex Mini models, and can be activated with a one-click setup process.
GEODNET’s network underpins the service, aiming to provide continuous and reliable performance across various environments. The company guarantees the availability of an RTK reference station within 40 km for subscribers in the United States and Europe, with potential expansion to other countries based on demand.
Geospatial professionals using iOS or Android devices can access the RTK corrections in supported regions, enabling them to perform complex location-based tasks with increased confidence in their GPS data accuracy. This service represents a significant development in the field of high-precision GPS technology, offering an integrated solution for professionals requiring accurate positioning data across multiple industries.
